It’s amazing how people keep on going away! Since I’ve been living in Ireland, each single month I have to say bye-bye to someone who leaves to explore the planet or to go back home. How sad, all these people living. The end of this year is specially bye-bye-ish as we lose a girl who has been taking care of my daughter for a while, a colleague of my husband and good friend of ours and my super duper colleague who shares my office.

It seems it is the fate of expatriate people. We meet loads of fascinating people, but sooner or later it is time to say bye-bye. I now have some experience and I have to say it helps to take time for a proper bye-bye, say how sad you are, even go for one tear or two. It allows to get rid of a good part of inner sadness and to be back on track reasonably quickly.

But let’s keep positive because Christmas gets closer and Santa Claus does not like sad people (I have been told he even hates them and give them French industrial pâté to punish them). So let’s be happy: the good thing with these constant moves is that you get to know more and more people living all over the world. So you can save a good amount on hotel money when visiting their country. Apart from that, I am a genuinely generous and sincere kind of friend. By the way, if you’re from Mexico or Singapore, feel free to move to Dublin next to where I live, I will provide you with mince pies for afternoon tea.

List of things all car owners should have in their boot:

• a nice neighbour.

Hopefully the guy will provide you with energy and light when your battery needs a good start on a bloody autumn night. Don’t forget to feed him excellent chocolate to keep him working for next time you forget any random thing on all night long.

On Saturday, I have adopted a 11 months old small dinosaur found in a toy store. He told his name was Sébastien, and I believed him.

It was a gif for my daughter, but when she saw him, she burst in tears and since then keeps on calling him "Mummy's dinosaur". I reckon this is her way not to accept the gift. That's why I have decided to take care of Sébastien myself but I have to say he's not a good boy so far. For instance he keeps on biting my toes.


I don't think Sébastien is a bad dinosaur. But so far he has been carelessly educated. I will deal with this myself, and it is a matter of weeks before he is able to behave, I even think I will soon be able to take him to the restaurant. Of course, my beloved readers will get lots of updates about Sébastien progress.

Near where I work, I have noticed several times shoes hanging on a wire. They seem to disappear and re appear from time to time. I finally managed to took a picture to show you this strange thing (please, have a look a the picture below, please, thanks). As all the shoes seem to be white, I thought it was a trick used by secondary school kids not to have to attend sport lessons.

I talked to an Irish guy, and it seems to be a known phenomenon all over Dublin, probably an urban legend. It occurs in flats neighborhoods and it is supposed to mean that drug can be sold or bought in the area.

As part of the national programme to keep as much of cartographer   as possible in Ireland (so she has lots of excuses to visit often), I purchased a wonderful I-can’t-remember-the name-of-this-garment. I have to tell the world how this non identified garment is beautiful.

It is made of two shades of blue and stylised white flowers. The shape and the size are just perfect. My only problem is to find out what to wear with this to make it a work cloth.

Thank you cartographer, thank you world, thank you blue colour.

It took me only 15 months to figure out how to customise my LJ layout and to post a new entry. Not too bad...

Here is my new blog, english speaking, or at least trying.